Absurdism- this literary movement took place mainly in the theatre from the early to mid 1900s. Absurdism was based on the illogicality and purposelessness of human life in works marked by a lack of clear narrative, understandable psychological motives, or emotional catharsis. One of the most popular works of Absurdism in theatre was Waiting for Godot by Samuel Becket.
Magic realism-A style of writing, popularized by Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Günter Grass, and others, that combines realism with moments of dream-like fantasy within a single prose narrative.
Beat Generation- made popular by readings in coffeehouses accompanied by jazz music, writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg sought release and illumination through the bohemian counterculture of sex, drugs, and Zen Buddhism. This movement took place in the mid 1900s.
Harlem Renaissance- this movement took place mainly in the 1920s and was the outpour of African-American art, music, and literature. Authors such as W.E.B Dubois gained fame during this time period in addition to poets such as Langston Hughes.
Dadaism- In the early 1900s, an avant-garde movement that began in response to the devastation of World War I. Based in Paris and led by the poet Tristan Tzara, the Dadaists produced nihilistic and antilogical prose, poetry, and art, and rejected the traditions, rules, and ideals of prewar Europe .
The Lost Generation- occuring in the early 1900s, the writers during this movement expressed a sense of disillusionment. Examples are F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. This term is used to describe the generation of writers, many of them soldiers that came to maturity during World War I.
Modernism- began in the late 18th century and continued to high modernism in the 1920s. This movement is characterized by radical breaks with traditional Western art, thought, religion, social conventions, and morality. Major themes of this period include the attack on notions of authority and autocracy, stream of consciousness, alternative viewpoints and ways of thinking, and self-referentiality as a means of drawing attention to the relationships between artist and audience, and form and content. High modernism is generally considered the golden age of modernist literature, this period saw the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
Postcolonial literature- took place from the mid to late 1900s, literature written by and written about people from former European colonies, primarily in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. This literature aims both to expand the traditional expanse of Western literature and to challenge Eurocentric assumptions about literature, especially through examination of questions of otherness, identity, and race. Prominent postcolonial works include Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
Postmodernism- A notoriously ambiguous term, especially as it refers to literature, postmodernism can be seen as a response to the elitism of high modernism as well as to the horrors of World War II. Beginning in the mid 1900s and extending until the present, postmodern literature is characterized by a disjointed, fragmented combination of high and low culture that reflects the absence of tradition and structure in a world driven by technology and consumerism.
Surrealism- An avant-garde movement, based primarily in France, that sought to break down the boundaries between rational and irrational, conscious and unconscious, through a variety of literary and artistic experiments. The surrealist poets, such as André Breton and Paul Eluard, were not as successful as their artist counterparts, who included the artists of this period, including Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, and René Magritte.
Literary Movements of the 20th Century
Absurdism- this literary movement took place mainly in the theatre from the early to mid 1900s. Absurdism was based on the illogicality and purposelessness of human life in works marked by a lack of clear narrative, understandable psychological motives, or emotional catharsis. One of the most popular works of Absurdism in theatre was Waiting for Godot by Samuel Becket.
Magic realism-A style of writing, popularized by Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Günter Grass, and others, that combines realism with moments of dream-like fantasy within a single prose narrative.
Beat Generation- made popular by readings in coffeehouses accompanied by jazz music, writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg sought release and illumination through the bohemian counterculture of sex, drugs, and Zen Buddhism. This movement took place in the mid 1900s.
Harlem Renaissance- this movement took place mainly in the 1920s and was the outpour of African-American art, music, and literature. Authors such as W.E.B Dubois gained fame during this time period in addition to poets such as Langston Hughes.
Dadaism- In the early 1900s, an avant-garde movement that began in response to the devastation of World War I. Based in Paris and led by the poet Tristan Tzara, the Dadaists produced nihilistic and antilogical prose, poetry, and art, and rejected the traditions, rules, and ideals of prewar Europe .
The Lost Generation- occuring in the early 1900s, the writers during this movement expressed a sense of disillusionment. Examples are F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. This term is used to describe the generation of writers, many of them soldiers that came to maturity during World War I.
Modernism- began in the late 18th century and continued to high modernism in the 1920s. This movement is characterized by radical breaks with traditional Western art, thought, religion, social conventions, and morality. Major themes of this period include the attack on notions of authority and autocracy, stream of consciousness, alternative viewpoints and ways of thinking, and self-referentiality as a means of drawing attention to the relationships between artist and audience, and form and content. High modernism is generally considered the golden age of modernist literature, this period saw the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
Postcolonial literature- took place from the mid to late 1900s, literature written by and written about people from former European colonies, primarily in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. This literature aims both to expand the traditional expanse of Western literature and to challenge Eurocentric assumptions about literature, especially through examination of questions of otherness, identity, and race. Prominent postcolonial works include Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
Postmodernism- A notoriously ambiguous term, especially as it refers to literature, postmodernism can be seen as a response to the elitism of high modernism as well as to the horrors of World War II. Beginning in the mid 1900s and extending until the present, postmodern literature is characterized by a disjointed, fragmented combination of high and low culture that reflects the absence of tradition and structure in a world driven by technology and consumerism.
Surrealism- An avant-garde movement, based primarily in France, that sought to break down the boundaries between rational and irrational, conscious and unconscious, through a variety of literary and artistic experiments. The surrealist poets, such as André Breton and Paul Eluard, were not as successful as their artist counterparts, who included the artists of this period, including Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, and René Magritte.